“I think he should throw the shackles off and go and play again.”
So said Martin O’Neill about Jeff Hendrick back in July.
Ireland are in a great position to automatically qualify for the 2018 World Cup but they need a couple of big results to get there. They need players to recapture past, fearless glories and take some scalps.
In all likelihood, Ireland will do it the hard way. We will be taken all the way until the final minutes of the final game and we will be looking over our shoulders [or at our phones] for other results.
It will not be easy to go out there and play a natural game. To drive on when there is a growing, tangling knot in the stomach.
Ireland showed Europe they could compete with the best of them at Euro 2016 at two men at the forefront of that campaign look in good form ahead of the new Premier League season. Robbie Brady curled in a fine goal against Celta Vigo, in the Clarets’ most recent warm-up match, but Hendrick was the star man.
Irish supporters may not have seen the best of the Dubliner since the turn of the year but he was tasked with greater defensive responsibilities by O’Neill. All that may be about to change.
O’Neill told eir Sport that he would like to see Hendrick feature in more attacking positions this season, behind the strikers, and backed him as a player capable of scoring 10 to 12 goals. Burnley supporters would definitely welcome that but we’d like a few of them to be for Ireland [he currently has one goal in 33 senior caps].
Against Celta Vigo, Hendrick operated just off Sam Vokes and looked very impressive. He teed up Brady for his goal and slammed home the equaliser in the 2-2 draw.
https://youtu.be/VzaSqekMcgg
Aside from that, the 25-year-old linked up very well with Vokes, had a couple more pops at goal and drew praise from manager Sean Dyche.
Throw Jon Walters, who came on as a second half sub for Vokes, into the mix and the Ireland trio could well get into a nice, attacking groove by the time the WC2018 qualifiers resume.
